Justice Advocate Critical of Judicial Candidate

A local justice advocate says judicial candidate Shelly O’Neill threw her protest sign into downtown Reno traffic, and called her a trespasser last March. Tonja Brown has been dogging O’Neill for several years, claiming the lawyer committed perjury in a 1991 post conviction hearing for Brown’s brother, Nolan Klein. O’Neill at the time was Klein’s public defender.  Brown says O’Neill has no business running for Reno Municipal judge, and that her incompetence led to Klein spending 21 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Klein died while in custody, and maintained his innocence even though a confession could have gotten him paroled. Brown is complaining about the sign incident to the Secretary of State’s Office.